Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody, S244 No. 18 in F sharp minor

Liszt - The Final Frontier Phew! We've made it! It's all over! This final volume (2 discs) of all 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies brings to an end Leslie Howard's marathon traversal of Liszt's complete music for solo piano on 95 CDs. The series has taken almost 14 years to record. There are 1377 tracks altogether, with a total duration of over 117 hours - that is nearly five days' continuous playing time. Leslie has played over 12 miles of music from 16,000 pages which we estimate totals something between 9 and 10 million notes! (The retail price per note works out at something like 0.0000013p.)

Giovanni Bellucci is the perfect interpreter of Liszt. His musical accolades are endless, his Paraphases on operas by Verdi and Bellini was ranked by Diapason as one of the ten best Liszt recordings in history. This latest release of the complete Hungarian Rhapsodies also has the added benefit of including the rarely recorded Rumanian Rhapsody.

This set of pieces is barely known in extenso, perhaps not least due to the prodigious technical demands made upon the performer, but Misha Dichter himself is convinced that we gain a much deeper understanding of Liszt, keyboard genius, if we move beyond the familiar barn-storming of the Second and immerse ourselves in particular in the far-reaching harmonic implications of the last four. These were composed in 1882 and 1885, a full 30 years after the first 15 Rhapsodies were published in 1853, and naturally they show what a sea-change Liszt’s music had undergone in the period since he had been the toast of Europe, rivalled only by Paganini as a virtuoso performer and showman who routinely inspired fainting fits and the throwing of apparel that was not confined to gloves.

By the 1880s he was the Abbé Liszt, a visionary ensconced in Weimar and worshipped and emulated by Wagner. There are, however, connecting threads between the earlier and later Rhapsodies; most obviously, an unbuttoned delight taken in what he believed to be genuine folk-tunes (many of which have subsequently turned out to be middle-class confections) and in his transformation of them beyond the tropes of keyboard improvisation to infuse the Rhapsodies with the spirit and even form of the verbunkos, the Hungarian dance with its diverse sections and untrammelled zest.

The unique, newly commissioned booklet notes are written by Misha Dichter himself, who offers a guide to the style required for the interpretation of these works as well as a personal memoir of the pleasure he took in recording them.

A must have collection of Liszt’s works for piano performed by some of the greatest interpreters of his music. With a premiere division line up of pianists this 10 CD set offers the listener two performances of the B minor sonata by Gilels (captured in 1949) and Richter, the late Lazar Berman plays the Dante Sonata, the Transcendental Etudes, the Years of Pilgrimage Book 1and the Mephisto Waltz No.1.

Recently retired Alfred Brendel is heard in the Three Sonnets after Petrach, the Paganini Etudes and a selection of opera paraphrases. The great Earl Wild puts his stamp on the Mephisto waltz No.1, and the Reminiscences from Robert leDiable, and Don Juan.The legendary Cziffra contributes more operatic paraphrases, this time Tannhauser and Rigoletto, plus Gnomenreigen and the Hungarian Rhapsody No.19.

Expect the unexpected with Cziffra in this music – his performances were always at a white heat, and not for those of a delicate disposition! Listeners will have the opportunity to compare. Vladimir Ovchinikov’s recording of the Transcendental Etudes with Berman’s. Berman’s recordings today are hard to come by and this is a welcome reissue of this remarkable and elusive artist. The younger generation is represented by the outstanding Artur Pizarro performing the Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Further information

The Brendel recordings are from his highly acclaimed Vox recordings from the late 1950s which critics have preferred to his later Philips recordings. ‘Brendel was from square one a devout Lisztian and a true believer, his adroit pacing, his unfailingly architectronic timing of detail and dramatic events gives him a Toscanini-like impact’ Harris Goldsmith, on Brendel’s Weber/Liszt transcription of the Overture to Oberon. Wild finds exactly the right balance between devil-may-care energy and accurate virtuosity. Here on can sample Wild at something like his zenith as a Liszt player. Virtuosic, bordering on incendiary, but stand well back.’ Gramophone

Ovchinikov’s Transcendental Etudes: ‘Extremely fine pianism… a superb achievement outclassing Bolet and Arrau in just about every department. Ovchinikov has set the standard and set it high.’ Gramophone

Comprehensive booklet essay